Why You Should Insure Your iPhone

Your iPhone is a valuable and easily resold item which is why it is a target for theft. It is also is expensive to repair if damaged. This is why you should seriously consider insuring your iPhone or smart phone.

Consider how much an iPhone 4 costs to buy – depending on your monthly payment plan it can cost £229 for plans at £35 per month or can be free for those costing £45 per month. However do you really know how much it costs if you have to buy another one, if yours is lost or stolen?

The iPhone 4 is still very much in short supply, but here is a link to an unlocked iPhone 3GS 8Mb at Play.com. It costs £499.99! So if your iPhone was stolen, this is how much you will have to pay to replace it.

My iPhone is covered by my household insurance

Many of the better home contents insurance policies do cover your iPhone from theft and even accidental damage, so you may feel that this provides sufficient cover for your smart phone. No other insurance is required.

Whilst this might be true, there is a big problem – making a substantial claim against your home contents insurance is very likely to increase your premiums in the future, particularly if you have to make more than one claim for your iPhone.

We have heard of somebody who has had to make three claims for replacing their iPhone recently. That would have created a substantial claims history and would certainly have triggered future premium rises, but luckily that person had taken out specialist mobile phone insurance which did not affect his claims history on his contents policy at all.

I look after my iPhone – it won’t get stolen

With iPhones being short of stock and so expensive and also easily jail broken (freed from network tethering), thieves are constantly on the lookout for a quick opportunity to steal an iPhone or some of the other desirable smart phones.

In fact, a friend had hers stolen in a blink of an eye. Somebody had watched her use it to make a call then stole it from her handbag a few minutes later. Theft of smart phones is big business and sadly the more desirable the phone, the bigger a target you are.

Consider specialist mobile phone or gadget insurance

The iPhone 4 has a glass front and back. It looks great, of course, and Apple claim that it is very tough, however how many drops will it take to crack that glass? It will be expensive to repair, that’s for sure.

So it makes sense to take out specialist insurance for your iPhone or smart phone. Most phone networks have insurance schemes with reasonable monthly payments.

O2, for example offers insurance which costs £15 per month for the 16Gb iPhone 4, however it offers accidental damage, theft and worldwide cover. There is a £70 excess for the first claim, increasing to £125 for the third claim.

Gadget Cover also offer a cheaper iPhone insurance deal costing £8.99 per month with a £600 claims limit. This also covers accidental damage, theft and International cover.